"Ahhhhhhhh! Another year under my belt" Santa mused out loud . Mrs. Claus mused back, "And a mighty large belt that needs to be!", although silently. She continued her knitting, occasionally looking up to smile at her relaxing traveler, who was laying on the floor playing with three of his husky companions.

"Are you warm enough in your new mohair sweater?".

Santa, seeing his opening to thank his wife, crooned, "the only thing softer is your heart". He added "I really think it goes well with these brown-plaid wool pants". Mrs. Claus smiled at both statements even though she knew Santa's real fashion sense was satisfied if his socks were the same color.

The huskies seemed to take turns stalking and being stalked by Santa. He only half-attempted to keep them at bay by spinning on hands and knees on the braided rug that lay in front of his rock fireplace. Occasionally one of the dogs would take a momentary sabbatical and run over to the Christmas tree to catch the abundant smells wafting from the branches. They knew the routine, but did not understand why; the many ornaments were called "on-by" when hanging on the tree, and "treats" when they were not.

Noting one of these pauses at the tree, Santa wondered if the added attraction of the spun, husky-fur used as garland, added too much temptation for his furry rascals. The husky doing the pausing was wondering exactly the same thing.

Reading THEIR minds, Mrs. Claus said, "I know it may not have been a good idea, but the husky yarn does help with the Siberian rescue fund". Thwarting an on-rushing husky by pulling him in close, giving him a quick scratch behind the ears and then pushing him away, Santa grunted, "Don't worry. They know the rules!"

At this point Santa stood up, patting each of the huskies on the head as they tightened the circle around him and sat obediently. He said, "Ok all done" and one of them jumped up on the birch love-seat, in what seemed to be an effort to secure his spot. Santa quickly pointed to the ground and as if never even lighting on the love-seat cushion, the husky jumped back to the floor and ran to do a 'kitchen loop', with the other two huskies following.

Almost at the same time Santa had done the pointing; he turned to see if Mrs. Claus had caught the little indiscretion. She feigned ignorance and kept knitting while thinking "ah huh! SURE they know the rules."

Santa walked over to the fireplace and removed the fireplace screen and reloaded the fireplace grate with fresh logs. The smoke was like the sweetest of incense to him. The warmth of the fire a gentle hug. He replaced the screen and inspected his burn and then raised his eyes to the painting hung above the log mantle. While straightening its log frame he said, "I should really give Doug and Dar a call to see if they want to do another New Years camp-out." While sarcastically looking around their log cabin, Mrs. Claus responded, "Yeah, we don't want to be too close to civilization when Y2K hits.

After a short while Mrs. Claus set down her knitting and yawned. She watched as Santa proudly inspected the pewter musher and 2-dog team that was prominently perched on the fireplace mantle. She grinned and said "You know I heard that the guy who took FIRST place got one with four dogs!" . Santa also grinned knowing the exact look on her face even without turning to see.

Mrs. Claus got up, jostling one of the huskies who had already curled up at her feet. She walked over to Santa and gave him a big hug from behind. He turned in her arms to face her and kissed her forehead softly. She said, "I'm going to fall asleep in my chair if I don't go to bed. Do you want me to kennel the dogs?" Santa looked around the floor seeing all three huskies laying contentedly. "No, I'm going to read my new dog book for a bit and they can keep me company. I'll kennel them when I come to bed", he replied. "Well keep them out of mischief", she warned.

With that Mrs. Claus headed off to bed. Stopping at the doorway and turning she kiddingly said, "Oh! If you get hungry I left out some milk and cookies for you". She giggled as she touched her nose and held her finger towards her love. He likewise responded while saying, "I hope you know which one of my lists your name is now at the top of."

Santa picked up his new book, flipped on the wolf and raccoon table lamp, and reclined in the love-seat. After positioning his favorite suede, musher print, pillow he opened his book and started to read. The book told of magnificent dogs doing magnificent deeds. Some parts of the stories he read out loud to the dogs who occasionally tilted their heads as if understanding or trying to.

Just as he found himself getting a bit sleepy he turned to page 62 and discovered that one of his favorite adventures was included in the book. The story of Balto and the famous Nome serum run.

He said to his attentive dogs, "Oh! This story will be a TREAT for you!". But after reading only a couple sentences his voice trailed off as his tired body succumbed to the warmth of the fire and the travels of the previous day. He fell fast asleep.

The huskies looked at eachother as if to verify that all had heard the "treat" word. One of the huskies then nudged Santa's leg in an effort to hurry the distribution. Santa's sleep was unfazed, but the nudge caused a dog biscuit to partially slide out of his pocket. Knowing that Santa was always fair with his treats the other two huskies started searching, nose down to the floor, for theirs, thinking they might have missed Santa's toss.

Then the second husky spotted another biscuit on the Christmas tree skirt. Mistakenly thinking it had been thrown by Santa, where in truth it was one of the ornaments that had fallen, the second husky dove beneath the tree and grabbed the treat.

Carefully he made is way out so as not to disturb those that were still "on-by". The husky didn't realize that on his trip out from underneath the tree a string of lights had looped around his chest. As he started to prance across the room the tree toppled behind him. The draft caused by the tree falling knocked one of the Christmas stockings hung on the mantle to the floor also spilling its contents of treats.

The room was awash with treats and chewys. Frantically the dogs bounced around the room as if playing a game to see who could gather more treats than the other.

Santa slept through it, the sounds around him just adding realism to his dreams. Mrs. Claus did not.

She burst out of the bedroom guessing that a moose had just come in through the front window. At first glance, when she entered the living room, she thought her guess was confirmed. Except, where was the moose? Some exclamation must have escaped her lips as the dogs stopped their feast and ran to her. Still chewing they sat around her knowing that praise often followed their treats. She looked down at them wiggling in delight. Bending at her knees as if it were her that was conditioned; she praised them one by one. She then stood up shaking her head with the realization "Oh my god! My heart IS softer than mohair".

She then slipped on her coat and boots and went and refilled the Christmas stocking full of biscuit ornaments from the floor.

Carrying the stocking with her she opened the door and told the huskies, "kennel". They streamed passed her running ahead to the kennel like they were vying to be the first to arrive to tell the others of their good fortune. Howls and barks greeted Mrs. Claus who then called each by name tossing them all an ornament treat.

She returned to the cabin shivering slightly as she closed the door and took off her coat and boots. She re-examined the scene in front of her , walked over and unplugged the Christmas tree lights now horizontally twinkling. She removed Santa's book from his arms and placed it on the birch end-table. Switching off the lamp; the room was now dark except for the warm glow of the fire.

Gently she woke up Santa who groggily acknowledged her hand, got up and let himself be led into the bedroom. Mrs. Claus crawled back into bed as he sat on its edge and got out of his clothes and into his pajamas. He crawled into the bed, already warmed by her presence. Spooning Mrs. Claus he said "I had a wonderful dream". She said "Ohhhh?" "Yes", he said, "I dreamt I was part of the Nome serum run. But it almost was a nightmare as at one point my sled hit a tree throwing the precious cargo everywhere. I searched frantically in the snow for the serum, and…"

"Honey", Mrs. Claus interrupted, "I'm a little tired. Could we talk about your dream and your TREE in the morning?" . "Sure Love", he responded.

Santa gave his wife a gentle squeeze and kissed the back of her neck and they both quickly fell asleep.